4 Gop Hopefuls To Face Off On Tv In Senate Debate

CAMPAIGN 2004

Tuesday's Event May Be Key In Determining A Primary Winner.

August 9, 2004|By John Kennedy, Tallahassee Bureau Chief

TALLAHASSEE -- It won't draw viewers like the Super Bowl or even most stale summer reruns, but one hour of television this week could prove pivotal for four Florida Republicans vying for their party's U.S. Senate nomination.

For thousands of Floridians, Tuesday night's TV debate from the studios of Orlando's WESH-Channel 2 will mark the first time they get to size up Johnnie Byrd, Doug Gallagher, Mel Martinez and Bill McCollum.

In a race in which polls show almost one in three Republican voters remains undecided, the on-air battle could go a long way toward determining the winner of the Aug. 31 primary.

"Usually you have a choice between tweedledee and tweedledum in these kinds of things," said William Barnes, 69, a professional musician who lives in Windermere. "But these are pretty good candidates, and I guess I'm still pretty undecided. I better watch."

The debate, co-sponsored by WESH and the Orlando Sentinel, will air live at 7 p.m. Tuesday. It also will broadcast live on other NBC stations in Miami, West Palm Beach, Fort Myers, Naples, Tampa and Jacksonville.

In the Panhandle, two other NBC stations in the Central time zone will broadcast it later on tape delay.

The three leading Democrats in the race took part in their own statewide television debate last week in West Palm Beach.

That exchange produced few fireworks, with Betty Castor, Peter Deutsch and Alex Penelas embracing party unity and similar positions on topics ranging from health care and education to expanding stem-cell research.

But the TV audience was scant -- with overnight ratings showing that fewer than 200,000 households in Florida may have watched the debate live.

"We're hoping to produce a little more lively debate," said WESH general manager Bill Bauman. "We want to give the candidates more time to ask each other questions and challenge each other."

For the candidates, the statewide exposure carries risk and rewards. Each campaign concedes that Floridians have only a fuzzy image of the contenders, who have struggled to get voters' attention between the laid-back landscape of summer and the din of the presidential contest.

"It's a good opportunity to showcase who we are," said McCollum, the former Longwood congressman who polls show continues to hold a narrow lead over Martinez as the race enters the homestretch.

"But we also know that this is just one component of the campaign," he added. "Grass-roots campaigning and TV advertising toward the end are also very big parts."

McCollum, who lost the 2000 U.S. Senate race to Democrat Bill Nelson, has been campaigning for more than a year and may be the best known of the Republican field.

But the TV exposure could broaden the public's knowledge of Martinez, a former Orange County chairman and housing secretary in President Bush's administration; Byrd, the state House speaker from Plant City; and Gallagher, a Coral Gables software executive who has spent $3.4 million of his own money on the race.

Two other Republican contenders, Sonya March, a St. Petersburg former Air Force jet flier, and Bill Kogut, an Ormond Beach Realtor, have trailed far back in the polls and were not invited to the debate. Another self-financed Republican candidate, Karen Saull, dropped out of the race last week.

So the spotlight will be on the front four.

"It's clear they are all experienced orators, but in a debate like this, there's probably going to be no clear winner," said Jennifer Coxe, a Martinez spokeswoman. "But it's important for voters to get a chance to see these candidates side by side and try to assess which one should be a senator."

The race to fill the seat being vacated by retiring Democrat Bob Graham has riveted the attention of Democrats and Republicans nationally. With Republicans clinging to a one-seat majority in the U.S. Senate, the outcome of the Florida contest in the November election will be key.

Viewers may have to work Tuesday to gauge differences among the candidates, all of whom are conservative Republicans who endorse the president's position on the war in Iraq, homeland security and cutting taxes.

But contrasts are there.

Byrd and Martinez will likely highlight their endorsement by the National Right to Life Committee for opposing efforts to broaden stem-cell research, which McCollum and Gallagher support to expand disease treatment.

McCollum may also continue his focus on Martinez as a former president of the Democratic-leaning Academy of Florida Trial Lawyers. For his part, Martinez is expected to burnish his ties to the White House, while Byrd may present himself as the most fiscally conservative of the bunch, based on his legislative record.

Gallagher, the private businessman, already has built his campaign around the theme that he is a political fresh face.

Typical of most Republican primary contests, each contender is lurching to the political right -- shaping an appeal to the social conservatives and anti-big-government voters who are expected to troop to the polls for the August contest.

With no second primary runoff, the top vote-getter will advance to the November round against the Democratic nominee. But each party expects fewer than 1 million voters to cast ballots this month -- making Tuesday's debate instrumental even if the TV audience is low.

"I think you're going to see these guys really mix it up in this debate," said David Niven, a political scientist at Florida Atlantic University. "There's too much at stake, too many undecideds, and too many candidates for any of them to try to stay above the fray."